On this day in 1997 Italy beat England at Wembley in a World Cup Qualifier thanks to Gianfranco Zola’s 19th minute winner.
Words: Ciro Di Brita
On this day in 1997 Italy beat England at Wembley in a World Cup Qualifier thanks to Gianfranco Zola’s 19th minute winner.
Words: Ciro Di Brita
The Azzurri had won their two opening games in Group 2. First a 3-1 victory over Moldova in Chisinau thanks to a Fabrizio Ravenelli brace and a close-range header by Pierluigi Casiraghi. Then a 1-0 win over Georgia played in the Stadio Renato Curi, Perugia where Ravenelli again proved to be the match winner.
Next up was England at Wembley on the February 12 1997. The Three Lions were sitting on top of the group on goal difference, having won their first two games
against Moldova and Poland respectively.
Manager Glenn Hoddle gave Matt Le Tissier a rare opportunity from kick-off while goalkeeper Ian Walker was also given his first start. Sol Campbell was asked to play in an unfamiliar sweeper position and the Tottenham Hotspur man was caught flat footed by Alessandro Costacurta’s perfectly weighted ball over the top which Zola controlled deftly before firing past Walker. Campbell got a slight deflection on the shot but was unable to prevent it from going goalward.
Azzurri CT Cesare Maldini relied on a back three made up of Billy Costacurta, Ciro Ferrara, and Fabio Cannavaro, his son Paolo and Angelo Di Livio ran the wings while Angelo Peruzzi tended the sticks. Demetrio Albertini, Dino Baggio and Roberto Di Matteo stalked the centre of midfield while Zola and Casiraghi roamed up front.
Itay started off on the front foot but were happy to retreat and defend their lead after Zola had put them ahead. England huffed and puffed and barring one or two decent saves by Peruzzi didn’t create too many clear-cut chances.
It was England’s first ever loss at Wembley in the World Cup, and at the time with the Italian victory it looked like there would be only one team topping that qualifying group.
But somehow it would be Hoddle’s side that would go on to top the table by a point and qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France after battling to a 0-0 draw in Rome in the last deciding group game. The Azzurri suffered from dropping points by drawing 0-0 away to both Georgia and Poland to leave themselves with having to go through a playoff with Russia to get to the World Cup.
They would make it through that playoff with help from a certain twenty-one-year-old Gianluigi Buffon who replaced an injured Gianluca Pagliuca on thirty minutes and pulled off a string of iconic saves in the snow in Moscow.